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Grasses and gases for a cooling world

The standard sort of photosynthesis uses a so-called C-3 chemical pathway. But maybe from 8-7 million years ago there’s an increasing proliferation of so-called C-4 plants. They use an alternative, more-efficient pathway to incorporate carbon from C02. C-4 plants evolved independently 45-60 times.

Tropical grasslands are mostly C-4. The profusion of grasses, herbivores, and carnivores on tropical savannahs will owe a lot to C-4 plants. This evolutionary transition is probably a sign that C02 levels are declining, and have reached a threshold where C-4 plants are favored.

Going back about 7 million years, C02 levels stood at maybe 1500 parts per million (ppm). (They were higher earlier in the Miocene.) Levels decline pretty steadily, leading to global cooling and eventual Ice Ages. But things never again reach the extremes of Snowball Earth 750 million years ago.

At the beginning of the Industrial Age C02 levels stood below 300 ppm. They went above 400 ppm last year.